Next Wednesday, Sept. 12, starting at 7:15 p.m., five local members of a group called Tenth Sky Poets will read from their works at the Lovett Library, 6945 Germantown Ave. in Mt. Airy. One of the five, Starr Cummin Bright (center), is seen here speaking at a CeaseFire PA demonstration about the need for rational gun laws.

by Len Lear

Starr Cummin Bright, 62, had a privileged life growing up in Chester County, attending a private girls school on the Main Line, earning a B.A. in the classics from Yale University and then a V.M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania's nationally acclaimed School of Veterinary Medicine.

Starr always loved animals but especially horses. “I spent January of my senior year in high school working with an equine veterinarian,” said Starr, who was particularly moved “when I saw animals suffering and couldn't do anything about it.”

Starr, whose husband Clayton started out as a sculptor but now both sculpts and paints in oil, worked after vet school graduation as an equine vet mostly in Chester County but also had clients in Bucks and Lancaster Counties. She only worked for about a year and a half but was about to go back to work after the birth of the family's second child when tragedy prevented it.

Starr and her family were attending services in June of 1991 at Landenberg United Methodist Church in Landenberg, a small town in southern Chester County, when a total stranger who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia walked up to Starr and shot her.

The man who shot Starr was later sentenced to 5-10 years for aggravated assault with a firearm, plus 10 years of probation following the prison term.

“He served all 10 years in increasingly secure prisons,” said Starr. “His probationary years were in Maryland, where he lived with a sister whom he tried to shoot before he shot me.”

Sensory nerve pain from a bullet ricocheting down Starr's spinal cord was severe enough to disable her. It was five years before she could write a cohesive, scientific paragraph. Since her pain level still skyrocketed when it rained, she gave up equine medicine and turned to non-fiction writing for her husband. “That left an empty spot, which poetry has readily filled,” said Starr. “Nature does abhor a vacuum.”

Starr's poetry focuses on wildlife, music, family (including animals) and “aspects of nature which sometimes raise questions and often bring deep joy.”

The Unionville, Chester County, resident has written about being shot and the shooting's effects on her and her family. For over 10 years she also wrote an annual newsletter about her husband's approach to his art. These days she adds to his website news tab fairly regularly.

Starr also does work as the Legislative Lead for Gun Sense Chester County, a gun violence prevention group which has both gun owners and non-gun owners as members and on their board. “I am not anti-gun,” she said, “but I want to prevent gun violence. I don't want anyone to undergo what I have been through, so I speak when asked.” (If you Google, you can see a powerful speech Starr made an a demonstration held by Cease Fire PA, an anti-gun violence nonprofit.)

Twenty-seven years after being shot, Starr still suffers intense pain after-effects, but she tries to avoid strong pain medication. “I prefer deep meditation with a focus on living in the present moment, as well as intense exercise which releases circulating endorphins to deal with pain. When that is insufficient, I take non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. I don't want to take any drug that will come between me and the reality around me.” (The pain still gets worse when it rains.)

Despite her decades of suffering in pain and the loss of her beloved veterinary practice, Starr maintains a remarkably sunny attitude. “No matter what is happening,” she said, “I find it always worth observing and looking deeply at aspects of life around me and finding meaning of some kind … You have a choice about your attitude. You can be bitter and angry and spread misery, or you can seek out the positive and find the joy of living, even — especially — when it is hard."

What is the hardest thing Starr has ever done? “Forgive the man who shot me, wishing for him all the things I wished for myself: peace of mind, a sense of internal balance, love and the joy of living.”

Next Wednesday, Sept. 12, starting at 7:15 p.m., Starr and four other members of a group called Tenth Sky Poets — Susan Charkes, Philip Krieger, Claire Owen and Laura Taddei — will read from their works at the Lovett Library, 6945 Germantown Ave. (at Sedgwick) in Mt. Airy. All five are published poets.

The Tenth Sky Poets were inspired by the late A.V. Christie (1963-2016), winner of major poetry prizes “who taught us over the course of a number of workshops how she believed in poetry's power to create meaning. We want her legacy to live on. We meet monthly, read an A.V. poem for openers, read, respond to and critique the poems we have written … ”

Starr's work can be found in several poetry journals as well as in her 2017 Chapbook, “Inhabiting an Island.” For more information, visit www.starrcumminbright.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com